Do you find yourself constantly struggling to keep attention on the task at hand? Or when you’re working you are not as productive as you once were?
Well it could be your chair, or the desk height or even social media! Point is, you want to reclaim your productivity and manage your time better.
In this guide, we will look at some productivity apps that can help you become more effective. From organising and note-taking to building habits and enhancing your security, there is something for everyone here.
The Best Productivity Apps & Tools
We at TechVise love helping people solve their problems, and that’s once again what we’re hoping to achieve here.
Doesn’t matter if you are looking to boost your current state or starting from scratch on a new fancy digital transformation project.
When we last talked about the best productivity apps, we mentioned several time management tools, and we showcased some very good time tracking app.
Last year we published a listicle on conferencing tools for small businesses, calendar app for reminders, meetings and daily tasks. Then we also wrote about beginner’s guide to working from home and all the necessary tools you should use for remote work. We really think we have covered about almost every topic that come under ‘productivity applications’.
So you must check those out! And for now, let’s get started with productivity apps.
Todoist
Todoist is a project management tool. It organises and keeps track of your daily tasks. With it, you can do:
- Task management
- Team Collaboration
- Set daily, weekly, or monthly goals
- Categorise tasks with labels
- Integrate other mobile productivity apps like calendar app, files, and emails
This tracking app allows you to streamline your tasks and actions. Consequently, you can achieve your goals and objectives. There is a free version with which you can perform certain actions. However, the paid plans give you access to the entire gamut of key features the management app has to offer.
There are two paid plans to this productivity tool;
Pro: under this plan, you can run up to 300 active projects. Also, you get unlimited reminders and activity history. What’s more? It allows up to 100 MB file uploads, among other things. All for a price of $3/Month.
Business: this plan offers everything in Pro but with an improvement. For instance, you get priority support from Todoist reps, team billing, and team inbox. Also, each project can have up to 50 people on it – in short you get team collaboration!
Evernote
Evernote is one of the most popular productivity apps in the world. It comes handy for a wide variety of key features and daily tasks. For instance, you can:
- Take notes of events like meetings and classes
- Record audio
- Sync across multiple mobile device
- Access your offline files
- Scan handwritten notes; the application can recognise about 28 typewritten and 11 handwritten languages
- Integrate other team productivity applications with the Evernote and expand the boundaries of what’s possible
In short, Evernote is a feature rich app that allows you to make better use of your time and task management.
It has a free version that provides access to several useful features. However, you can boost your access and improve your productivity by purchasing a paid plan. If you would like to experience what it offers before you pay, there is a free trial available. However, it only lasts for 14 days.
These are the paid plans Evernote offers:
Personal: allows you to sync across multiple devices, create notes of up to 200 MB, and upload files of up to 10 GB every month.
Professional: provides the same benefits as the Personal plan. However, you get a monthly upload of up to 20 GB.
Teams: offers the same benefits as Professional but with a focus on team collaboration and project management.
Habitica
Habitica is a habit tracker app through which you can track habits via gaming. There are three basic categories: To-Do’s, dailies, and habits.
Here is how they work:
To-Do’s are task list you need to do just once. For example, if you have to pick up a cake for your daughter’s birthday. Once you accomplish this task, tick it off in the application, and it is gone for good.
Dailies are tasks you have to do every day. For example, if you are trying to ensure a consistent workout habit. Every day, when you accomplish this task, you should check it off. When you do this, your Avatar’s health will improve, and you will earn rewards. In other words it acts like a reminder app.
Habit Tracker are for when you are trying to improve your ability in a certain area or reduce/eliminate a certain behaviour. Every time you accomplish your set out goal, whether to improve or eliminate, you take a positive step in the game. Every time you falter and indicate this, there will be consequences. This way, you can stay accountable and on track to accomplish what you goal.
You can edit your tasks and set things like difficulty level, add notes, set the frequency, and many more. Also, you can set up rewards to motivate yourself when you accomplish a goal. For example, if you do stick to your workout routine for a goal, you can set a reward of going out and having a cone of ice cream.
The personal productivity app is free, but it offers some extra in-app purchases too.
Freedom
Freedom is a multi-purpose project management app that helps you maintain focus and break free of the internet’s hold. With it, you can restrict websites and social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, ESPN, etc. Consequently, you can give your full attention to the tasks you need accomplished.
This tool is useful for writers, developers, researchers, editors, and many more. If your career requires you to be on your system, but you have a problem staying focused, Freedom is the tool you need. Even better, you can use it across a variety of platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
If you would like to test run Freedom to determine whether you require it, there is a 7-day free trial you can avail.
Toggl
Toggl was essentially a list app for enhancing productivity. While it had started off as a time tracking app, the company has since merged with others to now offer three products.
Time Tracking, Hiring Management and Project Management. The ideal combo!
Toggl Plan: this tool provides a high-level overview of what individual team members are doing as well as what tasks are still on the tray. With this product, you can manage and organise multiple projects and increase efficiency. For instance, if certain plans change, you can use it to stay on track for accomplishing your goals. This allows teams to collaborate more effectively. Hence, they can experience less stress and achieve better results.
Toggl Track: Track is a time tracking app for tracking time blocks for tasks, projects, and tags. You can choose between real time tracking via a start/stop button, manual entry, and dragging and resizing of time blocks. With this tool, you can monitor how you spend your time. Consequently, you can plan it better – your time – and determine how to be more efficient with it.
Toggl track has over three million users worldwide. It is available on multiple platforms – Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. Also, you can integrate with several other tools such as Google Docs, Google Sheets, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Calendar and much more!
Toggl Hire: As the name suggests this tool is all about optimising the hiring process. Key feature being the skills test which you can give your candidates to screen experts from beginners.
1Password
1Password is a password manager, digital vault, form filler, and digital wallet all rolled into one. And with the proliferation of digital products available today, it certainly has its uses. Because when you think about it, how many passwords can you remember without help?
With this tool, you can:
- Store private and sensitive documents in a digital vault
- Manage your passwords and keep them save from thieves and hackers
- Automatically fill forms and sign in to apps and websites with erstwhile recorded usernames and passwords
You can use 1Password for both personal and business purposes. Also, it is available on multiple devices and platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android. What’s more? It has a feature, Watchtower, which keeps track of password breaches and other potential security issues. Hence, you can keep your accounts safe.
Teams: this plan provides unlimited shared vaults and item storage. Also, it uses two-factor authentication for the login process to bolster security and enables up to 1 GB of document storage per user monthly. It costs $19.95/month.
Business: this plan provides up to 5 GB document storage per user. Also, up to 20 guest accounts can use its limited sharing option. Finally, you can generate usage reports to create audit trail, among others. It costs $7.99/user on a monthly basis.
Enterprise: under this plan, you will have access to all features available under the Business plan, alongside a dedicated account manager, among other extra benefits. Contact the 1Password team to get a custom quote.
Speaking of password managers, we covered a list post for the same, and we think you should definitely check out the other best password managers.
Krisp
Krisp is not exactly a productivity app, but its a tool for intelligently removing background noise from the several online meetings and calls.
Key features of Krisp are removing echo and background noise from both ends of the call, audio recording, and support for almost every online meeting product and headsets, microphones and speaker out there.
Their free plan is actually good for value and not some bogus throwaway things. You get 240 noise-free minutes every week, 1 GB of audio recording storage and virtual backgrounds too (if thats your thing).
Krisp is an easy to use tool which we recommend for the mere purpose of making your calls clearer and free of background noise, and echo.
So, thats a wrap!
If you are looking for more productivity apps, we recommend looking at eSignature tools for signing contracts on the go, best invoicing products and some great products for collaboration and online businesses.